Vue.js Is Good, But Is It Better Than Angular Or React?

Which Framework should I choose, Angular, React, or Vue.js? Should I hire Angular JS Developer or ReactJS Developer, who would benefit my business better? Some say go with Vue.js, but is it better than Angular or React?

Since each of these frameworks has similar uses, bearing all these questions in your mind is completely normal.

Unfortunately, there is no straightforward answer to these questions. Every framework has its own strengths & weaknesses that you should address to know which one aligns better with your requirements & goals.

Let’s assume that you are a business owner with zero experience with programming languages & a hundred percent unfamiliarity with the coding world. But you are passionate about taking your brand to sky heights by creating a super responsive website or mobile application.

So, is it necessary for you to learn every ins & outs of untangling programming wires? Clearly NO.

Merely knowing which framework would suit your business better would be enough to help you make an informed decision about your business’s future goals, and that too in a more value-effective way.

Or, maybe you could be a student in the computer science field looking to specialize in one framework but skeptical about which one to choose – Angular, Vue.js, or React?

Because your choice would depend on what value you wish to bring to your company’s desk and with which team you’d be working.

Although these languages can be used interchangeably to build front-end applications without being the same, understanding their differences & similarities is still essential.

Besides, don’t you think we should talk about some basic understanding of frameworks first? It would do some justice to all our technically unfamiliar readers here.

So, let’s begin.

Table of Contents

• What is a Framework?
• Which one is the oldest – Vue.js, React or Angular?
• Architecture Explained
• Scalability Comparison
• Size Comparison
• Common Technologies
• Performance Comparison
• Popularity Comparison
• Advanced Features
• Scope & usage in 2021
• Benefits & Drawbacks
• Top companies using these technologies
• Developers’ Availability
• Final Words

What is a Framework for Web Application Development?

A framework is an outline of an application. You can take it as a template that can be tweaked and modified to define the look & feel of the application you wish to build.

Mainly, the role of frameworks is to simplify your development process. Due to them, you wouldn’t need to build your app or program from scratch.

Which one is the oldest – Vue, React.js, or Angular?

Angular, a fully-fledged front-end development framework that arose from the unmatched creations of Google in 2010 is the oldest one among three. Its constant number of updates & global improvements have forged it into a feature-rich version today.

React is a UI library that came into existence in 2013 from the responsive family of Facebook & Instagram. It has received immense popularity since its launch because of its agility & simplicity.

And, Vue.js is a progressive framework, lately arrived in 2014 to give tough competition to its rivals. It was developed by Mr. Evan You (Former Google Employee) to match the functionality of Angular, and simultaneously overcome its complexity.

Each framework is component-based and allows fast creation of UI features. However, each has a distinctive structure as well. So first, we’ll understand the architectural differences to know the fundamental philosophy.

Architecture Explained

Vue.js

Popularly known as a progressive framework, Vue.js has a core library that focuses on the view layers only. It is admired by everyone due to its extended functionality to support & harmonize with official & third-party packages, viz Vuex  & Vue Router.

Vue’s modeling syntax allows you to create View components that include familiar HTML with special features & directives. Its templating syntax is preferred so much because it supports JSX & JavaScript.

Though Vue doesn’t hold any strict connection with the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) pattern, its design seems slightly inspired by it.

Vue mostly gets you to work with the ViewModel layer, which makes sure that the application’s data is processed correctly for the framework to render an up-to-date View.

The best part of components in Vue is that they are self-sufficient, small in size, and can be reused throughout the application. Even the Single File Components with .vue extension consist of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to help your code easily reside in one file.

Working on larger projects becomes more organized when single file components are used in Vue.js. Furthermore, Browserify or Webpack is a great set of tools you can use to collect all your SFCs (Single File Components) into working JavaScript code.

Angular

Before we start, we want you to know that it’s Angular 2 we are discussing here, not the earlier version of AngularJS.

Though AngularJS was the originator, it was restricted to Model-View-Controller. But, in Angular 2, you can experience free control because of its component-based structure.

Every Angular application has a minimum of one root component and one root module. However, projects in it are well-structured into Modules, Components, and Services.

Components of Angular are also template-based. There’s a ‘Class’ in them that determines the application’s logic and decorators. These decorators (Metadata) of components help Angular search for the building blocks needed to create and present its view.

Angular templates too are written in HTML, incorporating Angular template syntax with special directives to render multiple elements at once and output reactive data, among other things.

Components are also discrete parts of Angular applications. It uses services to delegate business logic tasks like validating input and fetching data. Though Angular doesn’t constrain their use, it is often advised to structure & keep apps as a set of distinct services to be reused ahead.

Angular is based on Typescript, so it can be used to obtain a seamless experience.

React

React doesn’t administer a particular project structure. Because it is a UI library popular for rendering elements, you can start it simply by writing a few lines of code.

React elements are the smallest building blocks within React apps. React’s DOM is more powerful than Document Object Models because it keeps itself updated as soon as any changes are made.

A React component is a larger building block that allows independent and reusable pieces to be reused throughout the application. They consider and accept inputs as props in order to produce viewable elements for the user.

Based on JavaScript, React is primarily combined with JSX (JavaScript XML), a syntax extension that allows you to include both HTML and JavaScript in one element.

Anything created with JSX can be created using the React JavaScript API. Still, developers prefer to use JSX because it is more insightful.

Vue.js vs Angular vs React: Which framework is best for Scalability?

Scalability is a very important aspect that shouldn’t be neglected while developing projects. When a project expands to meet increasing demands, the application you create must also be able to keep up with the growing functionality.

It is important to use a framework that keeps the doorways to your scalability needs open. This is an integral decision that will keep your project & business sustainable for the future

Angular and React both can be used for scalable operations. Angular’s modular development structure and React’s component-based approach with reusable components, make these two, eligible for the list of frameworks that are best to accommodate the growth of your business.

Unfortunately, Vue.js can’t be counted among the list of scalable frameworks due to its template-based syntax. When an application demands to reach more scale, its template becomes more restricted to reuse and decompose JavaScript  components. This can be a sort of hindrance for companies planning to build large scale apps.

Vue.js vs Angular vs React: How big are these frameworks?

Don’t let this parameter slip out of your research notes. Framework size plays a vital role in affecting the performance of your project’s interface.

While choosing the right one can earn you a boost, choosing the wrong framework has its own inverse effects.

Here are the most updated framework sizes of Vue.js, Angular, and React in descending order:-

• Angular 2 weighs around 566K (heaviest of all).
• React js weighs around 133K with its DOM embedded.
• Vue js weighs around 58.8K (lightest of all).

What technologies are common between Vue.js, Angular, and React?

All three, Vue.js, Angular, and React, are infused with amazing templates and pre-created modules that can be used to build progressive web apps, also called PWAs.

Although PWAs are web applications, they can be added as shortcuts to your smartphone’s home screen to enjoy a similar feel to native mobile apps.

However, if you are looking for a more diverse range of templates, then we’d advise you to proceed with React & Angular only. Their extended stays within the industry have made them a repository of extreme value & cool templates.

Vue.js vs Angular vs React: Performance

It’s true! The performance of your web app depends on the framework or library you use. But, if you are working on a very small project, then you can go with any of these frameworks. You’ll hardly feel any difference.

However, things do become concerning when the question is about scalability, steadiness, and integrating ability. In regard to React, Vue.js, and Angular, we compare the performance based on two aspects – Framework Benchmark & DOM.

Where Angular requires to work with its in-built HTML DOM to perform optimally, Vue.js and React are functional with virtual DOM.

Virtual DOM is comparatively snappier than a real DOM. It saves the time & trouble of re-rendering your web apps’ UI after every state change.

Yet, many professional developers still use Angular to develop large-scale SPAs. But you can see React, and Vue.js performed better than Angular in the below given JS Framework Benchmark.

This JS framework benchmark shows slightly differences in performances of Angular and React, but the difference isn’t much to classify any framework as inferior or superior.

Vue.js vs Angular vs React: Which framework is widely used?

Leaving all of the metrics aside, the popularity of a framework does play a significant role in its selection for your project.

Better the popularity, the bigger will be the community and the easier it gets for developers to play with frameworks.

Vue.js: Out of all, Vue is at the top with the maximum number of 185K stars on GitHub. It’s considered as a heavily independent project in the open-source community that powers more than 1 million websites.

React: Favorite among Java Scripters, React has nearly 171K stars on GitHub. Used by Facebook in many of their internal projects, React is now juicing up over 2 million websites around the globe.

Angular: Primarily known for being used in enterprise projects, Angular powers over 97K websites. Even though Google has developed it, they haven’t used it in any of their top-grossing projects like Search or YouTube. This could be a valid reason for its least number of stars on GitHub – 74.3K only

Advanced Features in Vue.js, Angular, and React

To be called ‘Advanced’, these frameworks should be able to perform scalability and execution improvement tasks.

And for that, we take two core technologies – ‘Virtualization‘ & ‘Server-side rendering (SSR)’ into consideration.

Vue: ‘Nuxt.js‘ is a recognized framework built on the top of view for supporting SSR. However, virtualization options are not much strong in Vue. For that, developers usually take ‘Vue Virtual Scroll List‘ into use, but it’s reported to be quite buggy and unstable.

Angular: The ‘Angular Universal‘ package is often used for SSR and it has an official component as well for virtual scrolling & active reading of large lists.

React: Server-side rendering is supported in React as well, with its official ‘ReactDOMServer‘. For virtualization, developers can use a famous third-party tool called ‘React Virtualized‘ 

Vue.js vs Angular vs React: Scope & Usage in 2021

Vue.JS

Affordable, quick to learn, and suitable for short-range problems, Vue.js quick consolidation with code blocks can help you:-

• When you need to develop projects with interactive elements & animations.
• When you need to do prototyping without any advanced skills.
• When your apps require to be integrated with multiple other apps.
• When you are in a hurry to launch a minimum viable product

Angular

Best suited for advanced & large-scale projects, Angular is the top choice for:-

• Creating large enterprise applications with complex infrastructure.
• Redesigning a web application.
• Building dynamic content-based website designs.
• Developing Progressive Web Applications.

React

Forming business applications using Redux or MobX tools with React is a trend among skilled react developers. Belongs to a family of Mern stack, React can be used optimally:-

• For web apps that need UI to be focused.
• For apps that involve navigation bars, accordion sections, active/inactive states, active/inactive buttons, login/logout, user account details, user accessibility permissions, etc.
• For projects that tend to scale with the growth of the business.

Vue.js vs Angular vs React: Benefits & Drawbacks

Vue.js (Benefits)

• Due to its small size, Vue is pretty easy to install & download.
• js allows easy updating of elements without rendering the whole DOM.
• Its codebase remains light irrespective of the scaling of the application.

Vue.js (Drawbacks)

• Being new & unpopular in comparison to the other two frameworks, companies prefer to hire Angular JS developer & React JS developer.
• Excessive code flexibility in Vue.js often brings irregularities in the codebase.

Angular (Benefits)

• Angular results in smooth two-way data binding.
• It has a built-in module system.
• Angular also has a model-view architecture.
• It has often been reported in reducing the initial load time of a webpage.

Angular (Drawbacks)

• Despite being a Google-developed framework, Angular web apps have very poor SEO capabilities.
• Frequent updates of Angular might be a little overwhelming for a beginner.

React (Benefits)

• Big giants like Tesla, Airbnb, Uber, etc., use React for its high performance with complex apps.
• Front-end development code written in React is easier to maintain.
• The best part is that it supports mobile native applications for both iOS & Android.

React (Drawbacks)

• React’s tendency to receive updates quite frequently arise difficulty for developers to find proper documentation about its latest updates.
• React’s JSX syntax can sometimes get a little tricky for developers to grasp.

Top companies that use Vue.js, React, and Angular in 2021

Just for social proof, here are the names of some top brands that use these frameworks.

Developers Availability

Team selection is one of the most crucial projects that need acute planning and smart decisions. With the wide popularity in the market, it would be much better to hire React JS developer & Angular JS developer.

Vue.js developers seem to be few in the market. Even a skilled front-end developer will face a little trouble learning Vue.js

As per your situation, you can either hire in-house or remote Angular JS development services through agencies’ directories.

Or, you can even hire a remote and ascendable product development team through freelance portals to help your in-house developers in the particular technology stack.

Your choice of the team depends on various factors, such as location, budget, requirements, etc. But in the salaries section, Angular developers may cost you a bit expensive than hiring React or Vue.js developers.

Final Words!

Being a paragon in the industry of web development, Angular, React and Vue.js, all are very suitable. Updates are constantly being pushed with new versions, and to maintain the existing ones.

Due to this firm support, all of these frameworks are growing at a stable pace, without any prospects of being faded into oblivion.

Even though Vue.js isn’t as early as Angular or React, it persists to thrive at a very rapid pace. However, seeing them constantly evolving makes it hard to predict what will happen in the future. But don’t worry about the sustainability of your project!

From the view of a front-end developer, React will be the quickest to learn in 2021. Still, we have covered primarily all of the necessary aspects to look while selecting between Vue.js, Angular, and React.

Now, it’s strictly up to you to make the perfect choice for your business keeping these points in mind:-

• Your team’s experience is a viable factor to consider before choosing a technology.
• The complexity & scope of your project is affected by your choice of framework.

If you are still caught up between these three frameworks, you better ask experts.